Human trafficking in West Michigan to be addressed in upcoming seminar

Tuesday

Jun 17, 2014 at 7:00 AM

By Lisa.Ermak@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4219

Local experts fear that many are turning a blind eye to human trafficking in West Michigan and they want the public to know while it's an uncomfortable topic, it's a serious reality.Human trafficking, as defined by the Polaris Project, is modern-day slavery where people profit from the control and exploitation of others.“There are a lot of people that don’t think it affects our community and it does,” said Lisa Letts, Emergency Department Manager and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner at Allegan General Hospital. “Fifty years ago, people believed child abuse didn't take place in their town.”To open up discussion on human trafficking, Allegan General Hospital will host a seminar June 23. The forum is meant to boost awareness and provide resources for community members, educators and medical professionals, said Mary Whiteford, nurse and member of the Michigan Women’s Commission.“A big thing is awareness. These kinds of things have always happened and now we’re starting to understand it,” Whiteford said, adding that potential victims have presented symptoms at both Holland Hospital and Allegan General Hospital. "It is local."During the seminar, Carmen Kucinich, victim specialist for the FBI, will cover statistics, grooming, recruitment tactics as well as potential federal charges and sentencing guidelines for human trafficking. Andy Soper, founder of the Manasseh Project, will talk about services available, the continuum of abuse, language assessment and identification. Sheila Meshinski, nurse and staff development instructor for the emergency department at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, Detroit, will speak of victim identification, safety planning, common medical conditions and long-term treatment goals.“They say (human slavery) is on the rise and it’s getting more and more profitable," Whiteford said, adding that the Internet and Facebook have given perpetrators easier access to kids.According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, 120 potential human trafficking cases were reported in Michigan in 2013. Majority of those cases involved commercial front brothels, Internet-based commercial sex and truck stop-based commercial sex. More than a quarter of the cases involved minors.Minors were recently part of a human trafficking case in West Michigan. In April, 31-year-old Eddie Allen Jackson was convicted in federal court on three counts of child sex trafficking, which included recruiting teenage girls in grades 8-10, from Muskegon for prostitution in Grand Rapids.U.S. Attorney Patrick A. Miles Jr. said this was the first child sex trafficking case to be prosecuted federally in West Michigan.In July and August 2012, authorities said Jackson recruited girls to work for him as child prostitutes. He drove them back and forth to Grand Rapids, where he put them on the street to solicit men for sex. He also took them to semi-vacant houses to perform acts of prostitution with men. The jury convicted Jackson on all three counts after a two-day trial. He was returned to custody following the trial and will be sentenced in September. He faces a mandatory sentence of 10 years to life in prison.Helping to prevent cases like the one in Grand Rapids requires facilitating conversations on the topic so the community can better recognize the signs and indicators of human trafficking.“(Human trafficking) is not talked about and it takes a few people to champion it and getting the information out to the general public,” Letts said. “We want to bring it out of the closet, if you will. All of us can benefit from this.”— The Grand Haven Tribune contributed to this report. Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelLisa.